Book of Life Premiere Countdown: Day T-minus 5: La Ofrenda

El altar de muerto, the prime tradition of the holiday.

It consists of multiple levels covered with patterned paper, upon which the favorite foods and belongings of the deceased are placed. Apart from that, flowers, calaveras and candles are common basic components of the arrangement.

All the elements of the altar represent concepts from the religions of old: levels of the Mictlan, the soul’s traveling needs, the energy that flows through the realms, that kinda jazz.

But in the end most of that is overlooked, since the objective is to show the spirits that we haven’t forgotten them, to show that we still remember their likings with the food, how they lived their everyday lives with their belongings, and the happiness we spent together, reflected by the colors of the altar as a whole.